Lornoghrwong
HIPLegal is hosting a brown-bag lunch series for entrepreneurs (we started September 25, 2014), to watch and discuss videos of an exciting educational series, “How to Start a Startup.” Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator, is teaching this series as a class at Stanford this fall and is making the classes available online. Along with guest lecturers like Marissa Mayer, Peter Thiel, and Ben Horowitz, he will be covering the fundamentals: how to come up with ideas and evaluate them, how to get users and grow, how to do sales and marketing, how to hire, how to raise money, company culture, operations and management, business strategy, and more. HIPLegal is holding a weekly brownbag lunch to view and discuss each session on Wednesdays from 11:30-1pm at our office (20195 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 250, Cupertino). We watch one video per week (50 minutes) and then hold a discussion for about 40 minutes. We brainstorm ideas, bounce them off each other, and refine them over the course of the series. This is a 20 session program that should be a great program for anyone who is in the process of starting a company or is thinking about one day diving into entrepreneurship. The full curriculum and the videos to date are here. Space is limited, so please fill out the survey here and let us know if you are interested in attending the series with us, being on the waiting list to join us, or joining an entrepreneur networking group. Session 2 – Sam Altman, President, Y Combinator, Welcome, and Ideas, Products, Teams and Execution Part II Takeaways: Teams Your co-founders are key to your success. Don’t choose a random co-founder, but instead pick someone you know. If you have a co-founder, it is important that you be in the same location. You can find co-founders in college or by working at an interesting company and getting to know your fellow employees. The #1 cause of early failures is team blow-ups. It’s better to not have a co-founder at all than have a bad co-founder. Solo founding is difficult, but easier than working with a co-founder who doesn’t work well with you. Ideal is to have 2-3 co-founders. What to look for in a co-founder? “relentlessly resourceful” people – who are tough, act quickly, are decisive, calm, unflappable, creative, and technical (if you are not). Example: James Bond. examples: MacGyver, Lara Croft The goal is “Not To Hire” Not “To Hire”. Try to not hire right away to avoid a high burn rate, complexity, and tension. In the early days, hire when you are desperate. Spend either 0% of your time or 25% of your time hiring, because it is key to the future of your company. Define your cultural values before hiring and ensure everyone you hire believes in the mission. Get the best people – mediocre engineers do not build great companies. The first employees should be invested and motivated enough by the vision to feel like near founders. A single mediocre hire can kill a start-up. Work through personal referrals and don’t be afraid to look outside the Valley. Experience may not matter as much as aptitude. Use personal referrals to get people who are ready for the ride. The best people know that they want to join a rocket ship and act with autonomy, mastery and purpose. When hiring, dig into the projects they have worked on, call references and dig there too. What to look for in a hire? Someone who is smart, gets things done and is someone you want to spend a lot of time with. query whether this results in too little diversity of thought and perspective, e.g., the “bro” culture of Silicon Valley. Also important are good communication skills, risk tolerance, manic determination. Altman also suggests hiring someone you would be comfortable reporting to. query – how many Silicon Valley startup co-founders are comfortable reporting to women or someone with a different cultural background or belief set? If many are not, following this advice would reduce diversity in early stage companies and set that culture for the long term. Your employees help you build your successful company so reward employees more than investors. Give 10% of the equity to the first 10 employees (with 4 year vesting). Fight the investors about ownership percentages, but don’t fight the employees. It is important to retain hires, by keeping them happy. Give them praise and the opportunity for autonomy, mastery and purpose. Give 1-on-1 clear feedback. On the other hand, fire fast those who are bad at their jobs, negative or create politics within the company. If it’s a bad fit for skill, or interpersonally, you can move them into a different position within the company. Execution Founders need to execute well and lead by example. The CEO must set the vision, raise money, evangelize, hire and manage, and make sure the entire team executes. To get it done, CEOs need focus and intensity. Focus: what are you spending your time and money on? Every day, identify the 2-3 most important things you need to do that day, and just do those. Say “no” a lot. Set overarching goals and repeat them often to the team. Communicate well. note: good communication skills are a common feminine leadership trait. Growth and momentum are key – but know your metrics so you can measure growth. Intensity: you must be dedicated. “Startups are not good for work / life balance.” note: Historically second, or even later players have succeeded far beyond the first mover. Altman even acknowledges this about Google and Facebook. If you can outwork your competitors by just a little, you can achieve growth. Move fast and be obsessed with quality. Be decisive and bias toward action. “They have gotten new things done” every time we talk to them defines successful companies. You must maintain momentum. Founders must be quick, do whatever it takes, show up, don’t give up, and be courageous. When momentum is slowing and you are not “winning,” try to find a small win – “sales fix everything.” Establish an operating rhythm – ship the product, launch new features, and review metrics and milestones. If there is a disagreement on the team about the product, ask your users. And remember that disagreement can be acknowledged and addressed without creating conflict.